TDUK’s monthly series of free design webinars – providing a deep dive into some of the best examples of contemporary UK timber architecture – have now drawn to a close.
Featuring the multi-disciplinary teams behind award-winning timber buildings, the designTimber programme has provided a valuable platform for designers, manufacturers and other built environment specialists to share and expand their timber knowledge.
The talks focused on eight inspiring buildings selected from the 2023 Wood Awards winners and shortlist: a six-storey workplace, a high-performance sporting venue, a multi-faith temple, an urban infill home, an innovative woodland pavilion, a beachfront community centre, an advanced manufacturing facility, and a self-built boathouse.
During the presentations, expert practitioners behind the projects offered their insights into a variety of approaches to timber design and construction, from offsite manufacturing and robotic technology to traditional bolt-free joinery and the reuse of marine timber.
Delivered by over twenty leading architects, engineers, contractors, fabricators and clients, the eight-part designTimber talks were attended by more than 950 learners and have since been viewed over 2,200 times on our YouTube channel.
Forming a core part of TDUK’s mission to inform and inspire our current and future timber design professionals, the detailed CPD presentations were followed by Q&A sessions in which attendees were able to put their questions directly to the panellists.
We would like to thank all of the contributors to designTimber, for generously sharing their timber knowledge, and all of our attendees for participating in the webinars and bringing their insightful questions.
All the talks can be caught up on below:
New Temple Complex
The series began with the Wood Awards Gold Award-winning New Temple Complex: a serene multifaith temple built at the border of Hampshire and West Sussex.
Presented by architect Steve Wilkinson (James Gorst), engineer Duncan Walters (Eckersley O’Callaghan) and timber subcontractor Nick Horton (Pacegrade), the webinar covers architectural conception, through detailed structural design, to fabrication and installation.
Viewers can learn how the architecture was conceived as a form of sacred expression, with a brief developed over three years of dialogue between the client and the community, and how the materiality of the completed building connects to the surrounding landscape: making use of timber, clay and chalk.
The design was refined to reduce embodied carbon, using an engineered timber structure efficiently set out over a regular grid. One highlight is the development process of the exquisite glulam dome frame, which used complex structural modelling to enable it to withstand forces while eliminating use of steel. Other timber topics covered are the sourcing and manufacture of spruce glulam and the acoustic strategy inside the domed temple.
Durley Chine Environmental Hub
The second designTimber talk explores the commissioning, design and delivery of a Passivhaus-accredited, beach-side visitor hub that was built using 45 tonnes of reclaimed hardwood, previously used as sea defences.
Architect Mike Ford (Footprint Architects), engineer Monika Nikolaeva (WSP) and main contractors Matthew Squibb, Pete Best and Neil Butler (Seascape South) reveal how the project was shaped by its commitment to the reuse of local materials, including reclaimed timber groynes and locally sourced sand, along with decking from a decommissioned submarine base.
The project team are also joined by Zoe James from BCP Council, the project’s client, who provides insight into some of the key drivers behind the project and the intention for the building to support the council’s efforts to reduce waste on the seafront.
Black & White Building
The third talk of the series takes us behind the scenes of the Black & White Building: a six-storey office space with a beech LVL and CLT superstructure that has pushed the boundaries of sustainable workplace design in the UK.
Presentations from architect Dave Lomax (Waugh Thistleton Architects) and engineer Toby Reynolds (Eckersley O’Callaghan) show how each component was designed to work as efficiently as possible. Rationalising the use of specific timber products and technologies, they explain how they managed to create desirable, flexible workspaces with significantly minimised embodied carbon.
As their first project built from the ground up, the client’s vision was to create a building with sustainability at its core. Client architect Sophie Werren (The Office Group/FORA) describes how timber is layered throughout the Black & White Building – from the tulip wood façade through to the flooring and furniture – and how this helps to communicate the client’s sustainable commitments to environmentally conscious tenants.
Spruce House & Studio
The fourth session focused on the first completed project by London-based practice ao-ft – an award-winning family home which uses a custom milled CLT panel system to provide generous spaces within a constrained Victorian footprint.
Replacing an existing 1960s infill in poor condition, it was important to the designers that the new house minimise carbon emissions at every stage. During the webinar, we learn how the CLT primary structure was optimised to minimise use of steel and how both the shell of the house and the kit-of-parts staircase were designed for disassembly.
Architect Zach Fluker (ao-ft), engineer Sanja Buncic (Entuitive) and timber specialist Jim Johnstone (ConstruktCLT) explore the many ways that CLT was integral to fulfilling the aims of the project: as a low-carbon, cost-effective structure, a logistically beneficial construction approach, and a self-finished architectural feature.
Field Station
Developed by students from the AA’s Design + Make postgraduate programme, in partnership with engineers at ARUP, the Field Station woodland pavilion is an innovative structure created using crown timber – a material largely dismissed as forest waste.
The project, recognised with an award for Research & Innovation in the 2023 Wood Awards, was presented by project leads Kate Davies and Emmanuel Vercruysse, graduate students Garrett Nelli and Romain Odin Lepoutre, and engineer Adam Plavsic (ARUP).
Describing how they collaborated to develop a structural strategy using beech, ash and Norway spruce – the first of which grows in abundance in the woodland at Hooke Park – the team show how advanced digital tools enabled the unique geometries of irregular material to be used as standard architectural components.
The Boathouse
In the sixth designTimber session, we heard from members of the project team behind the Boathouse – winner of the Small Project category in the Wood Awards 2023.
Learning from traditional Japanese carpentry techniques, this entirely-larch structure was made using no mechanical fixings. The frame was designed to be built offsite in a carpentry workshop as a kit of parts that were then able to be self-assembled by the client and friends.
Presented by architect Jeremy Ashworth (Ashworth Parkes Architects), specialist timber framer Luke Copley-Wilkins (Carpenter Oak) and contractor Laurie Prentis (Enerphase Construction), the passion and uncompromising vision behind this delightful project is brought vividly to life in this webinar.
(Look out for the wood nail gun demo!)
Eton Sports & Aquatics Centre
Comprising a 25m pool and a four-court sports hall, the Eton Sports & Aquatics Centre is a finely crafted, high-performance building featuring a soaring, expressed glulam column and beam frame.
Presenting this impressive timber project to the designTimber audience was project architect Andrew Barnett (Hopkins Architects), structural engineer Barney Jordan (Cundall) and timber specialist John Spittle (WIEHAG).
Taking us from conception through to completion, their discussion gives insight into the architectural expression of the engineered structure; how the timber interfaces with the brick envelope and large glazed openings; how various site challenges were overcome; the benefits of off-site construction; and much more…
National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS)
In the final session we had the opportunity to learn about the new headquarters of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) from architect Adam McAvoy (HLM Architects), engineer Steve Peet (Engenuiti) and timber subcontractor Alex Brock (B&K Structures).
With a brief to promote collaborative working, sustainability and innovation, the design team maximised the technical and aesthetic capabilities of engineered timber to create a visually striking two-storey structure that is carbon neutral and optimised for productivity.
During the webinar, the cross-discipline team show how they took the NMIS mantra of innovation and collaboration to heart, with architect, engineer and specialist timber contractor working closely together to push the boundaries for the application of engineered timber and create an inspiring education and research environment.
